Las Vegas Travel Information

Before Booking
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I like to check the popular travel aggregator sites... Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, Hotwire, Travelaxe, and maybe Priceline. Then I'll check individual hotel and airline web sites and compare prices and flight times for the same travel arrangements. Price is not of primary importance to me... I'll pay a bit extra to get a late morning or early afternoon flight rather than an early morning or late night flight. (Who wants to spend their last day of vacation worrying about checking out of the hotel and getting to the airport in time for a 6 a.m. flight?) After comparing all the options, I usually end up booking my hotel directly through the hotel web site, and booking the flight separately through the airline web site. The aggregators seem to push the flights that have departure times between 11 pm and 7 am. I prefer traveling in the afternoon. The aggregators don't always offer lower rates either, and sometimes are even more expensive than booking your flight and hotel separately through the airline's and hotel's web sites. Whether price or flight times are your primary concern, you'll benefit by spending 2 or 3 hours comparing the options available. You'll also save time with your research if you narrow down your hotel choices... either selecting an area (mid strip, south strip, off strip, north strip, downtown) and/or price range (cheap, mid range, expensive) ahead of time.

Hotel and airline web sites are usually easy to figure out. Southwest Airlines web site is www.southwest.com, the Luxor web site is www.luxor.com

In cases where that isn't true, a search on google.com will quickly locate the web site for you.


Before leaving
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I like to travel light. I usually set aside my oldest, most worn out clothes to use as "vacation clothes" - meaning I'll bring them to my destination, then discard them at the hotel instead of carrying back 10 pounds of dirty old clothes. If you're a high roller you might consider not bringing ANY luggage with you. Just buy everything there, then toss it. If you gamble $50,000 what's another few hundred?

The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is now allowing cigarette lighters in carryon bags. And you can bring as many 3 ounce or smaller containers of liquids and gels as will fit in a quart sized zip-top bag. The bag has to be removed from your carry on and sent through the x-ray machine separately, however. And they're still making you take off your shoes.

At the airport
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If you have a reservation at the MGM Grand or any of the properties owned by Harrah's (Harrah's, Paris, Bally's, Caesars Palace, Rio, Flamingo, Imperial Palace) you can check in and get your room key at the airport. Every time I've used the airport check in facility there has been NO LINE at all. Then you get to the hotel and see 100 people lined up to check in. The airport check in offices are immediately to your right and behind you as you enter the baggage claim area. Most people, apparently, simply don't see them. Harrah's was purchased in February 2008 by Apollo Management Group and Texas Pacific Group.

The distance from the airport terminal to the strip (Las Vegas Blvd.) via Tropicana Ave. is 2 miles. The strip (Tropicana to Sahara) is 4 miles long. From the north end of the strip (Sahara) to downtown (Fremont Street) is 2 miles.

If you reserved a rental car, there is a free shuttle that will take you to the Rent-A-Car Center. If you have no transportation, you can walk from the airport for free; take a city bus (CAT) for around $2, or a shuttle for around $10. The shuttles stop at each passenger's hotel though. The most convenient option is to take a taxi. The taxi stand line can be very long but is also moves very quickly.

A cab driver might LONG HAUL you from the airport by taking the freeway instead of surface streets. Keep the Nevada Taxicab Authority 702-668-4000 number in your cell phone if you're going to use taxis in Las Vegas. If you suspect you're being long hauled, call them during the trip. Also refer to this Las Vegas taxicab fares and fees chart to see what a trip from the airport to various hotels should cost, assuming traffic isn't unusually heavy. The best instructions to give a cab driver are either "take the fastest route" or "take the least expensive route", whichever your priority happens to be at the time. Normally, the least expensive route between the airport and strip hotels will involve taking some combination of Tropicana, Paradise, Koval Lane, Las Vegas Blvd. or Dean Martin Drive (also known as Industrial Avenue. Part of Industrial Ave. was renamed Dean Martin Drive). When surface street traffic is very heavy, however (for example, after a large sporting event has just ended at the Thomas & Mack center; which is near the airport and to the north), the freeway (which is to the south) should not only be faster but also less expensive. So regardless of what other tourists may have told you, there is no hard and fast rule for determining if you've been long hauled from the airport. It all depends on traffic conditions at the time. (I put this information together from personal experience, reading tourist accounts of long hauling, and reading Las Vegas cab driver blogs.) The deciding factor is whether or not the cab driver is being honest with you about traffic conditions.



The best way to illustrate the concept is by looking at a map and the two different routes that can be taken from McCarran to the strip. The blue line on the map above shows the route you'd take from the airport terminal to Paradise Rd. north to Tropicana Ave. to Las Vegas Blvd. to a point in between Luxor and Mandalay Bay. The red line has the same starting and ending point, but instead of taking Paradise, Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. (also referred to as "surface streets") it takes Paradise Rd. south to Interstate 215 to Interstate 15. Taxi fares are based on mileage and time. The red line freeway route might be faster but it costs more because, as you can see, the distance is about double that of the blue line route. If the freeway is moving at 60 MPH and surface streets are moving at an average of 30 MPH then you can also see the time it takes to travel either route will be equal.

Most travelers are not concerned about spending $5 more on the taxi than they should have. The issue is that the cab driver, if he or she long hauls you, is knowingly making you pay more for a longer (in distance) trip. A driver reported for long hauling will be fined $500 if the evidence shows that you were in fact long hauled. Nevada Taxi Authority rules are enforced by Nevada state troopers.




Don't be alarmed at the taxi meter not starting at $0. Getting into any taxi in Las Vegas, the meter will start at $3.30, which is the charge for the first one-eleventh of a mile. Getting into a taxi at the airport, there will be an additional $1.80 airport tax; so the meter should start at $5.10. (I've heard of other ways dishonest cab drivers might try to overcharge you besides long hauling... one of those ways being inventing additional taxes they verbally explain, which are not shown on the meter; such as a "drop off fee" or "hotel tax.")

Men taking cabs from the airport might also be hustled into visiting a "clip joint". When you take a taxi in Las Vegas, you tell the driver where to go. Don't let the driver talk you into ANYTHING. Some clip joints pay taxi drivers a commission for delivering suckers to them. The cab driver will really talk the place up "oh this is a great place to go!" just so he or she can collect the $40 or $50 fee for delivering you to them.

A clip joint masquerades as a strip club and leads on newbie tourists who think prostitution is legal in Las Vegas (it is not.) Attractive women will coax you to spend a lot of money for various "activities" which they'll say they are "not allowed to discuss in detail." Wink wink nudge nudge. So you hand over $200 to $500 for the "deluxe hot tub package" or whatever, and then either get thrown out by a bouncer or get a lame 10 minute strip show. While prostitution IS legal in most of Nevada, it is NOT legal in Las Vegas or Reno (Clark County and Washoe County). But it's a popular rumor among tourists that prostitution is legal in Las Vegas. That's how the clip joint lures in their victims.

McCarran has a special "first class" security checkpoint line for departures. If you have a first class airline ticket for your trip home, you can bypass the long security line and use this shorter line.


You need some new shirts for your next trip to Las Vegas!

On the Strip (Las Vegas Blvd.)
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I've found the easiest, most hassle-free way to travel the strip is to walk. But sometimes you're at the south end and want to get to the north end quickly, or don't feel like walking a long ways (the strip is about 4 miles long).

Driving the strip is not fun. At all. Usually traffic is very heavy; and there are buses holding up the right lane; and lunatic taxi cab drivers are trying to get airborne; and masses of pedestrians are jaywalking; and hundreds of tourists in rental cars are gawking at the neon lights instead of watching the road. Renting a car is a good option for taking a trip to the Grand Canyon, Area 51, Laughlin, stuff like that. It's more of a headache than a convenience for getting around on the strip.

Taxis are, in my opinion, the second best option for traveling the strip. There are almost always taxis lined up at every casino just waiting for passengers. I say "almost always" because taxis can be scarce around checkout time (11:00 a.m. or noon at most hotels) and when large capacity shows are ending, which is mainly between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Otherwise you can expect to be able to walk up to the first taxi in line at any hotel and hop right in. The taxi meter starts at $3.30 for the first one-eleventh of a mile and most trips along the strip will cost around $10. The Palms, Rio, and Gold Coast (on West Flamingo), Hilton (on Paradise), Palace Station (on Sahara), and Hard Rock (on Harmon) are all within a mile of the strip as well.



Strip area addresses designated "west" will be west of the strip (facing the Stratosphere you're looking north; so west is to your left) and "east" addresses will be east of the strip. North of Sahara Ave. the east/west divider is Main Street rather than Las Vegas Blvd. Fremont Street divides the "north" and "south" addresses; so every address on the strip is designated as "Las Vegas Blvd. South".

The Las Vegas Monorail is inexpensive and runs between the MGM Grand and Sahara along the east side of the strip. It doesn't stop near every casino but is a good option to get from one end of the strip to the other.

Your fourth option, in addition to taxis, walking, and the monorail; is "The Deuce"... which is the public bus, line #302. While The Deuce has frequent stops along the strip - it has frequent stops along the strip. It might be fun for sightseeing, but the monorail is faster at getting from one end of the strip to the other. And each bus is usually crowded.

Another good sightseeing option is the trolley, which is actually a bus dressed up to look like an old time trolley car. Fare is $2, or $5 for an all day pass.

Vegas.com also has a bus running up & down the strip for I think $2 per trip. There is a monorail in between the Mirage and Treasure Island, and another monorail running in between Mandalay Bay and Excalibur; although you can probably walk those short distances in about the same length of time as waiting for the next monorail car to show up.

If you're staying at one of the Harrah's Entertainment properties (Rio, Paris, Bally's, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, and Harrah's) - they have a free shuttle that runs back & forth between their properties.



Renting a car is probably the most popular travel option, although as I mentioned above, you're going to find it more of an inconvenience than a convenience if you're not going to venture beyond the immediate Las Vegas Blvd. (strip) area. There is a Rent-A-Car Center near the airport, with free shuttles departing every 5 minutes. (The shuttles are advertised as coming every five minutes, but actually run almost constantly.) All the major car rental agencies are located in this one area. You'll pay a special "airport tax" though, which was quite high (23%) as of 2007. If you don't need a car for your whole trip, rent one on the strip then return it to the airport (this way, you avoid paying the airport car rental tax, avoid an extra 30 to 60 minute holdup waiting to get your rental car after your flight; and don't have to pay for a taxi to get back to the airport for your flight home.) There are lots of car rental businesses on the strip (many of them are in hotel lobbies). If you want to visit the off-strip attractions like Hoover Dam, Sloan Canyon, Red Rock Canyon, Laughlin, Lake Mead, ghost towns, Area 51, etc. you'll definitely want to rent a car.